Conference explores 'Moral Conflict and Free Society'

Posted May 1, 2008; 04:02 p.m.

by Staff

Scholars will explore questions about how free societies generate and deal with profound and divisive moral questions in a conference scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, May 12-13, in 219 Burr Hall.

The conference, titled "Moral Conflict and the Free Society," will run from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. May 12 and 9:15 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. May 13.

The conference theme is inspired by the 150th anniversary of the famed debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas in their 1858 campaign for the U.S. Senate -- a seminal example of citizens in a free society grappling with deep moral divisions and their social and political consequences.

The conference will include scholars from a variety of disciplines in the social sciences and humanities speaking on issues such as the crisis of slavery in the American republic, the subsequent quest for racial justice, continuing controversies over abortion and biomedical issues, the basis of human rights, and the question of humanitarian intervention in the affairs of other nations.